The Welfare State: Where Do We Go From Here? by Michael Walzer, Frances Fox Piven, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Joseph Schwartz, Margaret Weir will have to await further developments. They, out of their unique historic expe­ rience, have something to teach us, as EDITORIAL we have something to teach them. It seems that the socialization ofourecon­ omy and society has turned out to be a Democracy First, Economic Relations Later far more complex and drawn-out proc­ ess than many of us had hoped. But to brothers and sisters in Eastern Europe paraphrase Churchill's remark about A 11 across Eastern Europe, from about whether it is really capitalism democracy: democratic socialism is the the Baltic to the Bosphorus, the buzz they want. That's something they are worst possible goal, except when you words are now "democracy," "plural­ goingtohaveto find out for themselves. consider the alternatives. ism," "market economy." Other words They understand the evils from which -- Gordon Haskell enter the political discourse, but their they flee far better than the ones which use seems to depend more on how many await them. Life has taught them to DEMOCRATIC LEFT disbelieve anything they are told by their months have passed sinoo the great thaw Founding Editor ending the Stalinist ice age has reached rulers and to believe almost anything Michael Harrington (1928-1989) the particular country in question. As told them by those rulers' opponents Managing Editor time passes, "communism wilh a hu­ and enemies. They know that there is Sherri Levine man face" tends to give way to "social­ unemployment, poverty, crime, and Editorial Committtt ism," and that in turn to "social democ­ homelessness in the West, and that the Joanne Barkan racy" or just plain "democracy." rich and powerful dominate the media Neil McLaughlin The semantic changes express a real and the politics dependent on them. Maxine Phillipe shift in the perspectives of the classes They just underestimate the significanoo Jan Roeenberg and strata struggling to meet their press­ of these facts and processes, and expect Mit.ch Horowitz DEMOCRATIC LEFT CISSN 0164- ing social and economic needs and to them to be much easier to bear than the 3207) is published six times a year at find the symbols and polices appropri­ hopelessness of their present lives. For 15 Dutch St., Suite 500, New York, ate to them. The "new class" of the most, the pressing issue is to solidify, to NY 10038. Second Class postage paid party and state bureaucracy is desper­ institutionalize their new democracy; at New York, NY. Subscription $8 ately shaken but still very much in power the details of their economic relations regular; $15 institutional. Postmas­ in the economies and the governments can wait till later. ter: Send address changes to 15 Dutch of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Yugosla­ Of course, we should warn them Street, Suite 500, New York, NY 10038. via, and more dubiously in Czechoslo­ against excessive optimism about what DEMOCRATIC LEFT is published vakia and East Germany. It seeks to they can reasonably count on from the by the Democratic Socialists of Amer­ camouflage its rule by a selective adop­ "West" -- and especially from our U.S. ica, 15 Dutch Street, #500, NewYa:k, tion of parts of the new phraseology, government and capitalists. That's not NY 10038, (212) 962-0390. Signed articles express the opinons of while it bides its time in the hope that only because many of them tend to have the authors and not necessarily those wildly exaggerated hopes -- and we owe the tides of reform will run themselves of the organization. out on the shoals of deteriorating eco­ them frankness as their allies - but nomic realities or smash themselves to because unrealistic expectations of help ARTICLES bits on the rocks of national hatreds. from abroad can translate into passiv­ The Welfare State: Where Do We The new mass movements (politi­ ity, and perhaps to demoralization. Go from Here? cal, labor, ecological, economic, cultural) Our greatest contribution to their by Michael Walzer, Jean Bethke Elsh­ shy away from the term "socialist" -­ struggle right now is to open to them tain, Frances Fox Piuen, Joseph which they identify with the system the widest possible access to the infor­ Schwartz, and Margaret Weir ...... 3 they are trying to leave behind. To seek mation we take for granted. The Voice Elections in Brazil to persuade them that their recent of America must be supplemented by by Donald Ramos ...... 15 masters dist.orted and devalued this word, magru:ines, newspapers, and books which Update on the Social Charter by Vania Del Borgo ...... 17 amongsuch other words as "comrade," reflect the ideas, critiques, analysis, and Eastern Airlines Update "fascism," "democracy," and "equal­ programs of everything to the left of by Paul Baicich ...... 19 ity" -- all of which once had distinct and center in our intellectual, political, and Review of Whose Keeper useful meanings -- is a waste of effort. social life. We must also try to supple­ by Neil McLaughlitt ...... 21 Worse, such an exercise can only raise ment that with material aid -- anything Review of Roger and Me an artificial barrier between social forces which they can use to strengthen the by Paul Garver...... 22 and movements there and here, forces reach of their fledgling movements. DEPARTMENTS which desperately need to understand The broader question of what the Editorial...... 2 and help each other in this shrinking flight from "socialism" in Eastern DSAction ...... 11 world. Europe means for the prospects of the On The Len...... 12 Similarly, let's not argue with our socialist idea -- as we understand it -- Classifieds ...... 18

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 2 MARCH· APRIL 1990 Welfare State • Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare

The. American Welfare State: Where Do We Go from Here? by Michael Walzer

T wenty years ago, democratic left­ ists (like me) were writing articles called "Beyond the Welfare State." The word beyond in those titles meant that we already had a welfare state, or that the essential political work of creating a welfare state bad been accomplished (all that was left was administration), or at least that we knew what political work had to be done and only needed to fully represented here by Jean Elsh­ ism thnt we once located beyond the build or finish building the coalition tain, which sometimes seems to suggest welfare state is the precondition of a that would do it. And beyond also meant that the welfare state was and is a decent welfare state. Mutual concern, that the welfare state lay somewhere on deadend for socialists. Because of the institutionalized cooperation, an active the way to democratic socialism but bureaucracy it breeds and the clientage and engaged citizenry: all this is neces­ that the high achievement, the really and passivity it generates, there is no sary before we can establish a society exciting and important tasks came af­ way forward from welfare to any ver­ whose members are committed to help, t~rwards, further on down the road. sion of democracy. But deadend is no and actually do help, one another. But But this notion of a road, with sta­ more helpful that waystation in under­ this before is also wrong, since we are tions along the way, turns out to be a standing where we are today. We don't unlikely to create the mutuality, coop­ misconception, a bad metaphor. We have a location in a world-historical eration, and engagement except in the should nowreco~ize, I think, that a po­ process but a problem that arises in a course of a political struggle for wel­ litical community seriously committed set of concrete political circumstances. fare. Hence the starting point of Frances to the welfare of all its members, and The welfare state is a necessary but . Fox Piven's article: however much the providing for its members in ways that flawed democratic construction, and it arguments have changed, this is a don't degrade the neediest among them, needs to be reconstructed. The work is familiar struggle, against enemies that would already be a democratic socialist especially difficult because, as Marga­ we have seen before. community. Other things would still ret Wier and Joseph Schwartz argue, The three essays that follow are need doing, of course, but the other the partial success of the welfare state centrally concerned with this struggle things don't lie beyond this one; there is has fragmented the alliance that made and with the strategies that it requires. no necessary sequence, no historical road­ it possible. Those most in need have Radically new approaches or more a nd map to set our tasks in order. Political fewest allies. Socially and politically better of what we have? A focus on struggles are not fought and definitively isolated, largely incapable of self-help benefits or a focus on jobs? There are no won (so that we can move on to the next (until they are helped to help them­ certainties hereand no correct ideologi­ in line). They are at best partially won, selves), they are mostly the targets of cal position. But the very openness of or settled by com promise, and then they state programs in whose design they the debate and the new interest in ex­ are endlessly refought. have little part. These days the pro­ perimentation are good signs -- of an So with the welfare state: the com­ grams are as often punitive as benefi­ intellectual if not yet political revival on promises and partial vict.ories have given cial -- a sign that the communal solidar­ the left. e rise to unforeseen problems and new ity upon which any set of welfare pro­ patterns of criticism and opposition. grams must ultimately rest has eroded. Michael Walzer, a DSA member, is at There is now a leftist argument, force- In a sense, the democratic social- Princeton's Institute for Mvanced Study.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 3 MARCH- APRIL 1990 Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State • Welfare State • Welfare

The Welfare State: Program for Refor in

by Frances Fox Piven

N ot so long ago, nearly everyone on the left agreed that welfare state pro­ grams had to be understood in terms of class politics. The programs originated in class conflict, and once established, had consequences for power of workers on the one side, and employers on the other. There was still a good deal to argue about, of course, including whether on balance the programs helped work­ ers or capital more and, in a similar vein, about just which class forces should be credited or blamed for them. But for all of the wordy and often heated dis­ putes, one premise was not much dis­ puted, at least on the left: the welfare state was somehow fo rged in the vortex of class conflict. Programs which pro­ vided nonmarket income or services to The Food Plus program, which serves low-income families, is 'z°rrur:J the old or the unemployed or the ill were or act like an empirically observable business set about trying ~o~ up either the achievements of the working class. What one could see instead were profits by lowering wage oosts and public class or they were evidence of the ma­ myriad special interests, most of them expenditures. To that end, top corpo­ chinations of the capitalist class or, per­ ready to buy influence from both sides rate executives organized new vehicles haps more reasonably, they were both. of the aisle, and without much of a to promote the business outlook and Explanations in the capitalist state genre program that looked beyond the short program, funded think tanks to provide made a similar albeit indirect argument, run profitability of particular firms or intellectual foundations for their agenda, positing that welfare state programs industries. Certainly, the politics we could revived near dormant trade associa­ legitimated a class society, and thus observe provided a profusion of actors tions, and worked to modernize the Re­ could be understood as a stratagem to and events to nourish the disputes on publican party. The results of business avert or submerge class conflict. the left about the role of classes in the class politics could be seen first in the During the late 19603 and early 1970s historical development of the welfare workplace, in hardened employer resis­ these debates flourished in part because state. tance to wage and workplace demands, the workings of class forces in Ameri­ As the 1970s wore on, however, and in escalated union-busting efforts. can politics were in fact murky. On the American capitalists did begin to look By 1978, business lobbyists were finnly one side, popular pressures for welfare like a political class. Corporate leaders in command in the congress, where they stale expansion came less from the began lo organize, developed a political defeated labor law reform and most obvious organs of the traditional work­ program for the nation, and set about social program initi~tives. And after ing class than from the black move­ implementing it with missionary zeaJ. the election of 1980, a business-backed ment. On the other side, the notion of Thereorganizationofwelfarestatepro- Republican regime slashed taxes, raised the capitalist class as a political actor grams was clearly high on their agenda. military expenditures, deregulated seemed hypothetical and strained. Real Themainoutlinesofthesedevelop- business, attacked unions, and ham­ business interests were divided, their ments are familiar. Prodded by declin- mered away at welfare state programs. policies were often ad hoc, when they ing profitability and economic uncer- When the dust settled, housing pro­ had any policies at all. They did not look tainty in the early 1970s, American grams had been virtually eliminated,

D EMOCRATIC lEn 4 MARCH· APRIL 1990 Welfare State e Welfare State • Welfare State • Welfare State • Welfare State e Welfare

and the unemployment and means tested appears to have come too late. Discus­ community participation in their ad­ programs were badly mangled, partly sions of the welfare state no longer ministration. because public support for them was focus on class conflict. No matter the To begin to consider this sort of so­ weaker, but ~lso because they were currents of the real world, the irresist­ lution, it is useful to distinguish be­ singled out for the budget axe. ible currents of intellectual fashion have tween income transfers and the provi­ Of course, none of this was done already carried a good many left intel­ sion ofservices, because any scheme for under the banner of the capitalist class, lectuals up and away into the esoteric decentralization or participation would but under the banner of democratic realmsofposknodernistdiscourse. For likely affect them quite differently. Most public opinion. And as always before in those who remain to interpret public of the noisy criticism and most of the history, a ruling class in command of policy, the relentless attack on welfare budget cuts have focussed on the means­ propaganda did in fact sway segments state programs appears to have been tested income transfer programs. But of the population, and at the very least disorienting. The left critics who had the problems in these programs -- of in­ was able to generate a good deal of argued that the programs functioned to adequate benefits and demeaning treat­ popular confusion and misperception. legitimate capitalist relations clearly had ment-- are surely not likely to be solved Public approval of the means-tested some explaining to do. And if it was by decentralization or community par­ programs in the United States, which true that the programs lacked popular ticipation. To me, the very proposal had always trailed behind Western support, so did those who had insisted evokes images of the local and private Europe, dipped in the late 1970s, al- the welfare state was a working class tyranny that bedeviled poor relief pro­ though it recovered after 1981. gain. Where once we argued about grams before they were at least par­ These developments were awesome. achievements and failures, now there tially nationalized in the 1930s. More­ For the intellectual left, however, they was a profound loss of confidence, a over, state and local governments are ought to have been an opportunity for sense that the flaws in state provision even more vulnerable to business pres­ evaluating debates about the welfare were profound and inherent. sures in the form of capital strike than state. Finally, after years of theoretical So, buck to the drawing boards! One is the national government, and most of dispute, the capit:alist class had emerged of the main problems is said to be that the time, state and local tax laws and as the clear antagonist of the welfare state provision of welfare activities in­ social policies are shaped by that vul­ state. Here was an historic opportunity trudes on and smothers the institutions nerability. It is at least cautionary to to test theory, and even to learn from of civil society. In more familiar lan­ notice that the Reagan administration events something about the bearing of I guage, unresponsive government bu­ advanced proposals for the decentrali­ particular programs on business inter- I reaucracies displace the mutual aid ac­ zation of the AFDC and Food Stamp ests, thus perhnps gaining a specificity tivities of families and communities. programs. ~hich earlier debates had sorely lacked. I This ofwepeated charge has long been In fact, rather than decentralizing v>Which programs were targeted by the 1 a favorite of contemporary conserva­ these cash transfer programs, I would ~right, and where specifically was the tives from Nathan Glazer to Jesse Helms. propose mor~ of the bureaucracy that is W initiative coming from? Was there re- Now, however, the problem of state said to be at the root of the trouble. X '/ sistance, and just who was mounting it? bureaucracy has moved to the forefront Experience suggests that state and lo­ I ~ And what were the effects over time of of left concerns as well. And a slogan- cal options with regard to benefit levels R" program cutbacks on class relations, ized problem has produced a sloganized or administration work out badly for ~1' and particularly on labor power? solution: we should decentralize the the poor. Federal income maintenance ----> However, the revelatory momen,t__gr?grams, an~i!!_corporate schemes for programs tend to be more equitable and less susceptible to local business pres­ sures or to the nasty politics of working class resentment generated by regres­ sive state taxes. So, maybe we should advocate more centralization, especially in the AFDC and unemployment bene­ fit programs. And instead of relaxing bureaucrntic regulation, we ought to bind agencies responsible for these dis­ bursements by rules, albeit simple and straightforward rules, so as to reduce the arbitrariness of agency decisions, especially in determining eligibility. Well, ifit is hazardous as it surely is The hungry gather outside Our Daily Bread soup kitchen in Baltimore. Co111111ued 011 page 10

DEMOCRATIC lEn 5 MARCH· APRIL 1990 Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare What's Wrong with Welfare?

by Jean Bethke Elshtain AFDC institutionalize the feminization Whose Keeper? Wolfe argues that the of poverty and reinforce basic struc­ educated middle classes are in a better tural inequalities. position to take advantage of govern­ What's wrong with welfare? Or The indictments above are no right­ ment provided services. Middle-class perhaps better put, what has gone wrong wing lament. Many of the harshest welfare providers (over 70 percent of with welfare? Everyone agrees that the criticisms of the welfare state these days them women in health and human serv­ welfare state is in trouble. Consider the come from feminists and the left. It is ices) and middle-class beneficiaries re­ following: no longer possible, if it ever was, to inforce one another while another gen­ eThe welfare state is much better at dismiss criticism of welfare as a lack of eration of non-middle-class welfare generatingjobs for middle-class admin­ compassion for the less fortunate. To "clients" remains stuck in lousy hous­ istrators and welfare-purveyors than it be sure, Ronald Reagan has no ideas ing, collapsing neighborhoods, and ter­ is at delivering services to those most in about dealing with poverty, and during rible cycles of crime, drugs, and soaring need. his eight-year reign, liberals could rea­ out-of-wedlock births. e The welfare state has failed to elimi­ sonably claim that nouveau-conserva­ An adequate account of welfare nate the problems it was designed to tives were so busy spending their wak­ today must explain this bourgeoisifica­ confront. For example, social inequali­ ing hours in the greed business that tion of many state benefits and pro­ ties have not been reduced since the they had little time for those who were grams. It must also account for '.\ide­ inception of the American welfare state. trapped where nothing ever trickled spread disaffection from the welfare e The welfare state, in the words of down. In recent years, however, more state by the very groups targeted for David T. Ellwood in his book, Poor Sup­ commentators from the left have criti­ benefits. It must come to grips with the port, "offers modest benefits while cized liberal welfare~tate programs, the following harsh indictment from Shel­ imposing a ridiculous array of rules that ways in which aid is delivered, the state­ don Wolin, a political theorist who iden­ rob recipients of security and self-es­ controlled aid apparatuses, and the fact tifies himself as a radical democrat: teem." that funds are transferred increasingly They [welfare state recipients] eThe welfare state, as part of a huge not from the rich to the poor but to the are "targeted" by specialized pro­ bureaucratic apparatus, offers benefits middle class (which garners a dispro­ grams that, in effect, fragment that are "system-conforming," accord­ portionateamountofbenefits in all wel­ their lives. One agency handles ing to socialist feminist Nancy Fraser. fare state systems.) medical assistance, another job By this she means that programs like Such is the conclusion reached by training, a third food stamps, and Alan Wolfe in his rroent important book, so on ad infinitum. If a person's life is first flounced by bureau­ crats whose questionnaires probe every detail of it, and that life is reorganized into categories corre­ sponding to public programs that are the means of one's existence, the person becomes totally dis­ abled as a political being.. . This is because be or she has been de­ prived of the mos~elemental to­ tality of all, the self. If Wolin is right, and I think he is, how did things go so wrong? Wolin would argue that they didn't go wrong; instead the welfare-state from its in­ ception was as much about controlling A welfare center in New York City. the poor and marginal as helping them.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 6 MARCH· APRIL 1990 Welfare State • Welfare State • Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare

Whatever one's position on tha t contro­ tive-therapeutic state apparatus," a versial question, the vexing issue now world in which "professional expertise" is: How can the poor be empowered to supplants individual or familial auton­ help themselves? We recognize that omy and empowerment. help is required'in order for self-help to By failing to facilitate either child­ be achieved. Only an empowered poor care or job training, the welfare state, will be able to break out of the political Fraser argues, constructs single women and social disenfranchisement currently with children exclusively as mothers. perpetuated by agencies, managers, But rather than honoring these women, social workers, and other welfare-state "it stigmatizes, humiliates, and har­ providers. asses them." Genuine empowerment would in­ And even the "best part" of the volve such policies as tenant control U.S. social-welfare system -- those pro­ and management of public housing, an grams geared more to men who are idea that has been turned into success­ seen as potential wage-earners, rather ful practice in a number of cities (al­ than to women who are "familialized" though it involves a terrific fight against and seen as non-productive -- leads to a entrenched welfare bureaucracies). We A demonstration in Washington, DC. "degraded and depoliticized" form of must generate experiments in self-help ency for several generations that cor­ "passive citizenship in which the state on the local level that incorporate the rodes self-respect. preempts the power to define and sat­ principles set forth in the U.S. Catholic Both Ellwood and Fraser end up isfy people's needs." Bishops' Pastoral Economic Justice for endorsing something along the lines of There is no easy menu-option to All: Every perspective on economic life a "family wage" as one way to keep choose as a panacea for such ills. But a that is human, moral and Christian families (two-parent or single-parent) precondition for any change is a recog­ must be shaped by three questions: What above the poverty line. The availability nition on the part of the democratic left does the economy do for people? What of such a wage would also help prevent that defense of welfare-as-usual (with does it do to people? And how do people family disintegration. Today, a full­ more programs, more providers, more participate in it? time job at the minimum wage doesn't of what we already have) only perpetu­ Substitute "welfare state" for "ooon­ come close to providing a minimum ates a situation that degrades tens of omy" in the Bishops' declaration, and standard of living. Low wages are a thousands of citizens in the name of you get a sense of what is required to primary cause of poverty and the de­ helping them. Instead we might advo­ establish a situation in which welfare­ scent into welfare clientage ofa perma­ cate a children's allowance (a program state clients can do for themselves in nent or semi-permanent sort. Alterna­ which is simple and easy to universal­ ways that generate and sustain self­ tives are emergency assistance, "insur­ ize, unlike expensive professionalized respect. ance" provision (such as medical aid), day-care, which is not the option pre­ To pursue this matter further, it is and a program of tax relief or child ferred by poor and lower middle-class necessary to identify the different groups subsidies generous enough to provide women.) We might advocate an econ­ that exist within the broad category of real assistance to families with depend­ omy that generates full-time jobs that "the poor." Ellwood names three ma­ ent children. can guarantee a "real measure of inde­ jor groups: 1) families "in which the Fraser gives this entire subject a pendence" (Ellwood's phrase). Not adults are already doing a great deal for feminist cast. Drawing on the work of everyone can succeed in America, but themselves," that is, people are work­ radical social theorist, Jurgen Haber­ the standard liberal, welfare solution is ing yet go under because they "receive mas, Fraser exposes the underlying no solution at all. no medical protection or additional gender norms of our welfare system To conclude with a programmatic y then fall into a welfare and shows how its administrative prac­ "rule of thumb," we might look again to syste1 "th penalizes their work, tices "preemptively define women's the Bishops: "Every economic decision · se extra demands on them, and needs." Women have no say over this and institution must be judged in light stigmatizes them; 2) those who are "politics of need interpretation." The of whether it protects or undern1ines suffering temporary difficulties as a benefits they receive are "system-con­ the dignity of the human person." Isan result of a job loss. They need enough forn1ing ones which reinforce rather "amen" in order? e help to get back on their feet; 3) those that challenge basic structural inequali­ who cannot find work on their own and ties. Thus, feminists cannot simply Jean Bethke Elshtain is a Centennial need long-term support. This latter support existing social-welfare pro­ professor of Political Science at Van­ group, which includes single mothers, grams" -- because those programs have derbilt Uniuersity. Her most recent book has been caught in a cycle of depend- given rise to a "juridical-administra- is Women and War.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 7 MARCH- APRIL 1990 Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State • Welfare State • Welfare Rebuilding Social Solidarity

by Margaret Weir and education, health care, and job training and a serious erosion of the purchasing weakens productivity and "competitive­ power of the working poor. Joseph Schwartz ness." Yet such concern could yield This vulnerability of the American social policies further benefiting the welfare state is due largely to two unique middle cla.$ through tax credits for child features of American social policy: its D espite growing recognition that care and educational expenditures. lack of universal principles for organiz­ many Americans cannot personally Whether growing concern for the ing public social provision and the sharp afford decent health care, education, "health" of our society will engender disjuncture between social and economic housing, and child care, expansion of social policies that enhance opportuni­ policy. To comprehend this uniqueness social programs in the United States is ties for all depends on reintroducing the one needs to abandon the traditional not yet seriously on the political agenda. value of social soUdarity into an in­ left view of the welfare state as a uni­ The immediate obstacle is the federal creasingly atomized and fragmented form institution shaped by the func­ budget deficit bequeathed by the per­ culture. If not, the United States. is tional needs of capitalism for steady verse military Keynesian "recovery" of likely to evolve into a nation more di­ economic demand and social stability. the Reagan years, which could be read­ vided along Unes of race, gender, and The nature of a given welfare state ily solved by restoring progressive taxa­ class than when the Kerner Commis­ results from a complex history of politi­ tion and a rational defense budget. But sion issued its warning in 1968. cal struggle, economic development, and the resistance to expanded public pro­ state policy. grams has a deeper ideological basis. The American Welfare State Since the New Deal, the United Most Americans have grown suspicious Most Western welfare states in the States has equivocated between a top of social expenditure and cynical about late 1970s and 1980s witnessed "popu­ tier of social insurance for those regu­ the possibility of quality public provi­ list" revolts of middle income taxpay­ larly employed (Social Security and Medi­ sion. ers (including secure sectors of the care) and a bottom level of less gener­ The sources of this erosion in a working class) against public provision, ous, means-tested public assistance popular commitment to social solidar­ with their wrath focused on increas­ programs for those whose participation ity are myriad: growing middle class ingly marginalized -- often ethnic mi­ in the labor force is more sporadic. These dis<;;atisfaction with public education and norities -- poor populations. Yet most public policies have been supplemented other public services; the increased welfare states weathered the conserva­ by employer provision of private bene­ isolation of the poor, particularly the tive attack better than did the United fits, such as medical insurance, for those African-American poor, from the rest States. While Social Security and with "good" jobs. of society; the ideological mispercep­ Medicaid were unscathed, the Reagan This pattern of public and private tion that most social welfare expendi­ period witnessed 15 percent real cuts in policy has promoted a sharp societal di­ ture is for the "undeserving poor" (al­ AFDC, 11 percent in food stamps, 90 vision that, not surprisingly, has cut though over two-thirds ofsocial welfare percent in public housing expenditures, along lines of race and gender. Thejobs expenditure is devoted to Social Secu­ rity and Medicare); and the prevailing economic wisdom that we cannot af­ ford generous social policies in an inter­ nationally competitive world. There is evidence, however, that popular belief .. in the neoconservative nostrums of the 1980s is receding as the costs of the Reaganite "free market" become in­ creasingly evident (for example, the sav­ ings and loan crises; rampant financial speculation; homelessness). The enlight­ ened wing of corporate capital publicly acknowledges that the erosion of public A day care center in Washington, DC.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 8 MARCH· APRIL 1990 Welfare State • Welfare State • Welfare State • Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare thnt qunlify citizens for upper-tier pro- grams and private insurance have tra­ ditionnlly been the prerogatives of white 1 males. The core of the American wel­ fare state, the Social Security Act of 1935, which created unemployment in­ surance, old age pensions, and aid to dependent children, largely excluded blacks (as it did not cover agricultural and domestic workers). The program was founded on the model of a nuclear ;:; "'0.. family, in which the father had steady .§ E employment and insurance programs ::l .r. stepped in to help with emergencies. "c <>c Even though the barriers that have kept c members of racial minorities and women ,_" ,.c in inferior labor market positions have ~ relaxed in the past two decades, they :n remain at a disadvantage in this di­ being viewed as a problem of individual to middle- and working-els$ voters con­ vided world of social policy. character and culture rather than of cerned with quality health care, educa­ economic structure and policy. The tion, and child care may be central to a Means Testing and Vulnerability antipoverty programs of the 1960swere strategy of expanded social provision. The second key feature of Ameri­ created as sepamte, remedial progmms, The women's movement's growing can social provision is the disjuncture targeted to the poor (particularly black emphasis on issues of economic equal­ between economic and social policy. In poor). The failure to integrate such ity and child care has already helped Western Europe social democrats have programs as AFDC, food stamps, and revitalize support for public provision. tried (though not always successfully) Medicaid with a collective rationale Increasing numbers of Americans to integrate social welfare policy with (based on universal entitlements to job comprehend how radical transforn1a­ broader labor market and economic training and an economic minimum) tion of the American family must reshape strategies (aiming to tighten labor rendered them vulnerable to the racial our conceptions of child rearing. markets and upgrade low-wage jobs). backlash of the economically stagnant The failure of the progressive econo­ 1970s. Those who attribute most of the Fighting Right-Wing Myths mists around Franklin Rocsevelt to make erosion of support for the welfare state The divided and limited character social policy an important complement in the 1980s to a corporate ideological of the American welfare state -- if it can to economic goals meant that the United offensive downplay hostility toward be called that -- has meant that liberals States never coherently linked employ­ welfare among blue-collar and lower­ have had neither the political nor the ment policy to social welfare policy. middle-class constituencies. But hostil­ programmatic base to defend, much less Instead, in traditional American politi­ ity towards taxation and "big govern­ to extend, social policy. The organiza­ cal discourse the two realms are con­ ment" partly arises from misplaced tion of American social policy has done ceived to be separate and often compet­ hostility to means-tested programs. little to promote the commonality nec­ ing. Thus, social policy can only be ex­ Three key factors contributed to essary for generous social provision. panded when it can be "afforded." In the U.S. welfare state: the fragmented Instead, it has exacerbated the division the prosperous 19GOS such reasoning and localized nature of the American between the poor and the rest ofsociety. facilitated a limited "war on poverty"; state, a relatively weak labor move­ The consequences have been particu­ by the late 1970s, social policy was seen ment, and severe racial division. These larly devastating for the African-Ameri­ as an unaffordable luxury. The Reagan factors interacted historically to make can poor, who are increasingly seen as administration extended the Carter it difficult to construct an American "other" by white Americans. Thus in administration's neoliberal rhetoric of counterpart to the much more central­ current policy debates, the problem of an "age of limits" into a neoconserva­ ized, solidaristic types of welfare states the black poor is "the behavior" of"the ti ve attack on social provision as under­ in Europe. Although strengthening forms undercla$$" (a nondifferentiated term mining economic productivity because of collective solidarity, such as unions used to characterize a diverse group of it sapped individual initiative. and neighborhood associations, will be poor people) and the solution is coercive This historic failure to link social integral to revitalizing popular belief in programs that change their behavior. policy to broader economic policy con­ social solidarity, in an increasingly tran­ Little attention is paid to changing the tributed to unemployment and poverty sient society a consumer-based appeal structures of employment and social

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 9 MARCH- APRIL 1990 Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State • Welfare

Some "new social movement" ad­ opportunities that would improve the ciples does not mean we favor to~down, lives of all low-income Americans (in­ bureaucratic state provision. Any at­ vocates fear that strong public provi­ cluding the two-thirds of the poor who tractive set of policies would include sion will inevitably enforce a male, bu­ are white). For women, policy solutions community involvement in the institu­ reaucratic model of social organization have been narrowed to enforcing child tions ofsocial provision -- schools, child­ upon its citizens. Such an argument support and workfare programs, whose care co-ops, health clinics, public tran­ ignores the choices involved in how we ability to prepare women for nonpoverty sit -- integral to a democratic and egali­ structure social provision, whether it be jobs is extremely doubtful. Job training tarian society. But to believe that all provided by the state or community for skilled jobs, child care support for these goods could be adequately pro­ institutions in civil society. Even a women across income lines, and income vided by a strong family wage and ade­ society with a strong family wage will support for part-time workers with young quate child allowances is to ignore how debate how to construct its helping children are all deemed "impractical." inequalities in income combined with institutions. Citizenship need not be a As doubts about the "success" of private, decentralized provision create "homogenizing" category that reduces Reaganism grow, the left needs to seize intolerable inequalities in social provi­ all to the pursuit of the same interests the opportunity to debunk popular myths sion. Nor will the market magically and needs. Rather, ifhuman beings and about the welfare state. For example, provide an adequate family wage;-such the particular communities to which we need to reiterate that the major a goal would involve active state labor they belong are to be accorded equal victims of Reagan's upwardly redistribu­ market and tax policies aimed at a more respect, they need to live in a society tive tax policies were the working poor. equitable distribution of job opportuni- that guarantees those social rights necessary for each member to fulfill his On the other hand, the left needs to Strong welfare protections shape proposals for reform of social or her human potential. The ending of provision that speak to political and need not be top-down. the cold war al ready has produced grow­ ing public recognition that economic social reality. Social welfare policy can tiesand income. State policy will have a no longer be predicated on the assump­ great influence on what type of associa­ strength is more central to a nation's tion that a typical family consists of a tional life is possible for citizens within well-being than military hardware. If male breadwinner and a wife at home the institutions of civil society. George the left can intervene to transform the elite discourse of "human capital" de­ with children. Although funding limits Bush's "thousand points oflight" should velopment into a cross-class concern may preclude fully universal policies not be counterposed to the state fund­ for the development of each of our citi­ (such as equal child benefit levels, which ing essential to ensuring all citizens zens, then the 1990s may well be a would be progressively taxed), new equal access to communal goods. programs should be based on broad, decade of social reform. e inclusionary principles to ensure popu­ The Politics of Social Solidarity Margaret Weir, a DSAer, teaches sociol­ lar support. Universal programs need Policies based on moral principles ogy at Harvard. Joseph Schwartz, a not imply uniform benefit levels. For that speak to the needs of all people DSAer, teaches political science at example, although a child-support pro­ need not benefit each person uniformly. Temple University. gram should ensure an adequate mini­ But programs that provide some bene­ mum benefit level for poor women, such fits to all will inevitably garner more a program should also aim to provide support than strictly means-tested some benefits to middle-income fami­ programs. Despite the popularity of -PIVEN lies. Workfare proposals that coerce such programs as Social Security and Conrinued from page 5 clients without providing real training Medicare, however, the right has con­ to decentralize income programs, maybe or access to jobs that pay above poverty vinced many citizens that social wel­ we should explore decentralization and wages should be opposed, and alterna­ fare programs inherently create depend­ participation in the provision of serv­ tive policies should be designed that ency and preclude social reliance. One ices, whether education or health care prepare people to be productive mem­ of the left's major tasks is to demon­ or child protection. Indeed, perhaps bers ofsociety through real job training, strate how democratic public provision service delivery should even be con­ education and productive public jobs, if enhances each member's ability to con­ tracted out to nowovernmental organi­ necessary. Finally, wage and benefit tribute to society. If the obligation of zations, so as to encourage some diver­ policies should be set so that single each citizen to the community is ig­ sity and competition in the dreary wel­ parentsjoining the workforce no longer nored and social programs are simply fare state. However, while I think we confront a "poverty trap," where leav­ conceived of as "automatic" entitle­ should experiment, we should also be ing AFDC means the loss of health care ments, then support for public provi­ forewarned that there are no simple benefits or child support. sion will rapidly erode among those who solutions here either. To say that we support strong so­ see themselves as contributing mem­ It is not that there is much reason cial protections based on universal prin- bers of society. Continued on page 14.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 10 MARCH· APRIL 1990 DSACTION

UPCOMING elected leader of the New Democratic notice of when you will need the tape.) Party to succeed Ed Broadbent, the first 3) Michael Harrington: A Tnoute to his • DSA's Labor Commission is planning female leader of a major political party Life. This video of the September, 1989 a working retreat for DSAers active in in that country. She moved from Toronto memorial service for Michael Harring­ the labor movement April 27-29 at the to the Yukon in 1979, and in 1987 cap­ ton features such speakers as Irving 4-H Center in Washington, D.C. For tured the Yukon seat in the federal Howe, DSA Honorary Chair and DSA more details, contact Mike Schippani at Parliament in what was formerly a Tory members David Dinkins, Mayor of New home (313) 665-0175 or Jo-Ann Mort stronghold. In addition the NDP elected York and Ruth Messinger, Manhattan at work (212) 242-0700. Ifyou know of as its Federal president Sandy Mitchell, Borough President. ($25.00 a tape plus unionists who should be informed of a mother ofsix, and a partner in a Sas­ $2.50 postage and handling.) Order the this meeting, send their names and ad­ katchewan law firm specializing in labor videos from IDS, 15 Dutch Street, Suite dresses to to theDSAoffice at 15 Dutch and family law. ..And in British Colum­ 500, New York, NY 10038-3779 (212) Street,Suite500,NewYork,NY 10038. bia, NDPer Elizabeth Cull gave the BC 962-0390. • Bui/dingDSA'aAgmdaintMHearl­ NDP its sixth straight by-election vic­ •The January issueofLaborVoicecar­ land: A Conferentt on Organizing for tory by capturing the Oak Bay-Gordon ries articles on "Millions see and hear the 90s will take place Saturday, May 5 Head seat for the first time. DSA words, message on C-Span," "How in Chicago, IL. All mid west DSAers are we can get Labor Reform," "The Union encouraged to attend. For more infor­ REPORTS Breakthrough at Harvard," "Third Way mation, call Chicago DSA at (312) 752- Changes in Eastern Europe," "British 3562. • :OOAer Judy Deuts:h reports that thirty­ Labor Party is up in the Polls," and nine participants from twelve countries many other articles. Subs are available Beyond Communism and - including members of Parliament from at $10 per year from DSA Labor Com­ Capitalism: The Democratic Poland's Solidarity, Sweden and Costa mission, PO Box 28408, Washington, Socialist Alternative Rica -exchanged views about the world DC 20036. DSA's fourth annual division between haves and have nots • The winter issue of Our Struggle/ Leadership Retreat. at the International League of Reli­ Nuestra Lucha is now available. Ar­ June 29 through July 1 gious Socialists Seminar in Stockholm ticles on Panama, El Salvador, Latino Poughkeepsie, NY. last fall. The next ILRS seminar will be Voting Rights, and Puerto Rico. To Panels on the collapse of commu­ in 1991. subscribe send $15toDSA,Box162394, nism; the crisis ofcapitalism; lim­ Sacramento, CA 95816. its and possibilities for social de­ • The winter issue of Religious Social­ mocracy; plus plenty of time for RESOURCES ism features articles on Christian so­ socialist socializing. Call the DSA cialism in the international arena, office at (212) 962-0390 for more • Three new videos are available from Michael Harrington, and a review of in formation. the Institute for Democratic Socialism: Empire and the Word. For a regular 1) Changes in World Politics -East and subscription, send $7.50 to Religious • The Annual DSA Mid-Atlantic Re­ West. An examination of changes in Socialism, P.O. Box 80 Camp Hill, PA treat will take place June 1-3 at the the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and 17001-0080. Claggett Retreat Center, Maryland. $87 the move towards Unification of Eu­ • European Unity and Democratic for the entire weekend, but you must rope in 1992. Bogdan Denitdi and Joanne Socialism After the Cold War has con­ put down a $10 deposit by March 1. Barkan. (For rental only. Send $5.00 a tributions by DSA members Bogdan Den­ Send checks made payable to DC!MD/ tape plus $2.50 postage and handling. itch, Joanne Barkan, and Harold Mey­ NOVADSA, P .O. Box 1721, Reston, VA Please give ample notice of when you erson. This new literature piece can be 22090. For more information, call Bobbe will need the tape.) 2) Towards the purchased through the DSA office for Robbins at (703) 742-9450. Nineties: Openings for the Democratic 50 cents a copy, or 20 cents a copy when Left. Barbara Ehrenreich 's keynote ad­ buying twenty or more copies. INTERNATIONAL dress to the 1989 Convention of the • Unilateral Reciprocated Nuclear Dis­ Democratic Socialists of America. (For amiament, a policy paper by DSAer • Canadian socialists are taking femi­ rental only. Send $5.00a tapeplus$2.50 Robert Delson, is now available from nism seriously. Audrey McLaughilin was pootage and handling. Please give ample the DSA office for only 50 cents.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 11 MARCH· APRIL 1990 District of Columbia Michipan. The Metro DC Coalition for Ann Arbor DSA viewed a Choice, with which DSA is a videotape of Michael Harrington member, celebrated the anniver­ on "The Next Left" at its Janu­ sary of Roe v. Wade Jan. 22. The ary meeting and one by Bogdan DC/MD/NOVA Labor committee Benitch and Joanne Barkan on met in February to make plans for the situation in Eastern Europe the 1990s. ThetopicoftheFebru­ on February 7 ... The local DSA ary membership meeting was ''The Youth Section joined with othel"I California Unfolding Events in Eastern to form the University of Michi­ Charles P. (Chuck) Sohner, Europe." The local continues its gan Coalition for Choice. It placed formerly of Los Angeles DSA and work on developing a progressive two substantial opinion pieces in now ofLexington, Kentucky DSA, agenda for DC to be used in the The Michigan Daily ... .Detroit DSA will receive the Ben Rust Award 1990 elections. heard DSA Vice Chair Bogdan~ for outstanding teacher union Denitch speak on "Change in Eu­ commitment from the California Kentucky rope: The Socialist Ideal in the Federation of Teachers in March. Central Kentucky DSA met Era of Gorbachev and Thatcher," One of Chuck's accomplishments in Lexington January 9 to view a at Wayne State University in wasfoundingthe CommunityCol­ slideshow on Eastern Europe and Detroit. DSA Vice Chair Mildred lege Council, representing over hear from recent visitors to that Jeffrey, who is a member of the one third of the CFT members in area. Wayne State University Board of the state. Los Angeles DSA held a Governors, was on a twenty­ forum February 4 on "Revolution Massachuutu woman team of elected public of­ in Eastern Europe" with Joseph Boston DSA's school held a ficials and education leaders who Nyomarkay, USC Political Science successful five-week course on "In­ visited the Soviet Union last fall Department; Karel Kovanda, ac­ troduction to Democratic Social­ under the sponsorship of the tive in 1968 in the Czechloslava­ ism," with Tom Gallagher, How­ Women's Peace Initiative and kia student movement; and John ard Zinn, Diane Balser and Paul Women for Meaningful Summits. Gerlach, born in Yugoslavia and a Joseph as speakers. Jim Braude, veteran of the Abraham Lincoln director of the Tax Equity Alli­ New York Brigade. The Justice for Pittston ance of Massachusetts, and Judy Ithaca DSA and its Cornell Miners benefit in Los Angeles Meredity spoke on the Massachu­ youth section held its annual re· January 19 was transformed into setts fiscal crisis at a DSA meet­ treat January 27 to explore the a victory celebration. The Los ing in January. The Yankee Radi­ implications of the changes in Angeles DSA Reproductive Rights cal notes that a DSA weekly cable Eastern Europe and the Soviet Task Force viewed a video of "Abor­ series included tapes of the DSA Union, the direction of national tion for Survival," while the Health convention. Although four of the DSA, and local priorities in the Care Task Force met February 8 six candidates and referendums coming year.... Lynn Turgeon, to discuss DSA involvement in the endorsed by the DSA Political Ac­ Hofstra University economics movement for a national health tion Committee were victorious, professor, spoke to Nassau DSA care system. A LosAngeles Times the biggest DSPAC effort was also January 27 on "What's Happen­ article on "After the Wall" stressed the toughest defeat -- the mayor's ing in East Germany?" .... Local the views of DSA members Ha­ race in Somerville. There DSPAC­ New York DSA will give its Eu­ rold Meyerson and Bogdan backed John Buonomo was de­ gene Debs/Nonnan Thomas award Denitch.... Valley DSA met Janu­ feated by Mike Capuano in the March 21 at a dinner honoring ary 22 to honor Dr. Estelle Lit, dcsest election in city history, hsing David Livingston, president of who spoke on "Energizing the by 363 votes. In other DSPAC­ UAW's District 65. Speakers will Grass Roots for Peace and Nu­ endorsed campaigns, Rosario include UAWlnternational Presi· clear Safety." .... Palo Alto DSA is Salerno and David Scondras were dent Owen Bieber and Manhat­ organizing a panel on sex discrimi­ reelected to the Boston City Coun­ tan Borough President Ruth nation, with DSA Youth Organ­ cil, the Tax Equity Allianoo of Mas­ Messinger. Also to be honored is izer Dinah Leventhal as one of the sachusetts (TEAM) has secured Steve Max, Curriculum Directo. speakers. They will also be show­ ballot status for their tax reform at the Midwest Academy, who will ing the DSA Convention video tape referendum next November, and receve the first Paul DuBrul Awa of Bogdan Denitch and Joanne the Cambridge anti-rent control for his critical role in developin.. Barkan addressing international Proposition 1-2-3 went down to a the political strategies of the citi­ politics. crushing defeat. zen action movement. The New

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 12 MARCH· APRIL 1990 York City local will host its first Remembering Hector Oqueli - 1944-1990 progressive policy conference March 24. It will consider various by Patrick Lacefield were discovered near the Salvadoran alternative ways to deal with the border. They had been tortured be­ city's mounting problems of crime, Death was no stranger to Hector fore being shot to death. Links be­ drugs, health care, the homeless, Oqueli. As a leader in El Salvador's tween the Salvadoran and Guatema­ housing and budget constraints. Democra tic Revolutionaey Front and lan far rights date back to the early Nearly 200 people attended a DSA the democratic socialist National Eighties. dialogue between Robert Heil- Rev~ut10nary· Mowment, Hector bad Hector was a friend of mine broner and Bogdan Denitch on morethan ample opportunity to suf­ and of many in our movement. At Eastern Europe. A collection to ferroworkers and oomrades detained, memorial meetings in New York and :1 support striking workers brought tortured , and killed by the army and Washington, Guillermo Ungo spoke in over $200. The January 3 edi- death squads that in Salvador pro­ of Hector's courage in working in El tion of N ewsday carried an op-ed tecttheinterests of the fewwho have Salvador, "swimming in a sea full of piece by Frank Llewellyn. entitled much a gainst the many who have so sharks." Hector, a democrat and a "Rally Around the Rainbow." It little. When Hector resigned his cabi­ revolutionary in the best sense of defended the Dinkins' administra- net poet in the failed reformist junta both words, sought to tame those tion and pointed to possible direc- i of1980, the Salvadoran right passed sharks only to fall victim to their tions for the coalition that helped a death sentence on him. Hector deadly attentions. elect him ... The Workers Defense carried i t as a badge of honor -- and We pay tribute to Hector by League presented its David Clen- as anecessary risk for partisans of redoubling our own efforts to pro­ denin award at a dinner honoring thedemocratic left in his country. mote a negotiated political settlement Lynn Williams, President of the On January 12, Hector and Gua­ to the war in El Salvador that has United Steelworkers of America. temalan Democratic Socialist party claimed 70,000 lives over ten years. Speakers included Leon Lynch, activist Gilda Flores were abducted "How many deaths will it take 'til we WDL President and Vice Presi- byunarmed men in civilian clothes. know," goes the tune," that too many dent of the Steelworkers, and Hany Hector was in Guatemala to secure a people have died?" That's a damned Fleischman, WDL Chairman. U.S. V1S8 and was in route to Social­ good question. Until we Americans istlnternational gatherings in Man­ can provide an answer just as good, Pennsyluania aguaand Quito, Ecuador. On getting Hector Oqueli -- husband, son, pa­ The third annual Interns- word of the kidnapping, I called the triot, democratic socialist -- will not tional Women's Day awards party State Department's El Salvador desk. rest easy. Nor should we. e is being organized by the Pitts- No answer -- a nonresponse that says burgh DSA local. The event will much a bout the state ofU. $. policy in Patrick Lacefield, DSA's Organiza­ honor Pittsburgh women who have Salvador. Later, word came that the tional Director, liued in El Saluador contributed t.o improving women's bodies of Hector and Gilda Flores from 1985-1987. lives during 1989.... Philadelpbia DSA will host a visit by DSA Vice Chair Bogdan Denitch speaking on Eastern Europe. Special issue of DISSENT on Texas A rally and fund raiser for ca returning DSAer Judge Ben G. Levy to the 14th Court of Appeals • was held in Houston January 26. The European Revolutions with contributions by Washington Chris Riddiough, DSA vice chair, spoke to Seattle DSA on D aniel Bell • James Tobin • Jerzy Surdykowski "Socialist Feminism." A DSA I Mitchell Cohen • Bogdan Denitch • Robert Dahl general meEting heard Doct.ors Dan Erikson and Susan Doederlin, who Vladimir Tismaneanu • Paul Joseph were in El Salvador last fall, and Go rden Haskell e Josephine Wolle Lewis Coser Wayne Iverson of Seattle CISP~, speak about new efforts to oppose Tosubecribe, send $18.00 to Dissent/Foundation for the Study oflndependent I US intervention in that country. Social I deas, 521 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Single copies are $5.00.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 13 MARCH· APRIL 1990 Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare State e Welfare

We need to fight for the restoration of JOB OPENING benefits to the most vulnerable people, DSA is searching for one ~r two directm-Ievel positions especially women and children. And if we succeed in restoring benefits, we RESPONSIBILITIF.$: Pirectois are responsible for editing and produc­ will have to fight to raise them more, for tion of Democratic Lefr, int.eTnal political education; litel'flture develop­ they were abysmally low even before ment; fundraising; administration; conference organizing and meeting they began their downward slide in the planning; $ts.ff supervision; public 'l'8lations and public speaking. Candi­ 1970s. We should also experiment with dates should be familiar and in substantial agreement with DSA and its service delivery arrangements, perhaps activities. Experience with movement organizations or campaigns a plus. adding innovative neighborhood or AVAILABll.J:TY': Position(s) will be open this summer. recipient-run services to the new exist­ COMPENSATION: Mid-twenties. plU9 benefits. ing basic structure of services, thus TO APPLY: Send resume and a lett:er to: DSA Personnel Committee; 15 reducing the risks of local and private Dutch Stroot, #500, New Yor~ NY l 0088. Affirmative action employer. tyranny. And while universalism is often Applications due by April 15. touted mindlessly, the idea that pro­ grams create constituencioo, and broader than solution too, for it is absurd to programs create broader constituencies, PIVEN does suggest that the consolidation of Continued from page 10. think that children's allowances, or any other universal program, would pro­ programs is a useful direction for re­ to be satisfied with delivery of social vide benefits at a level sufficient to meet form efforts. The American poor would services in the United States. There the needs of poor families. The costs be better able to defend themselves if isn't. Indeed, in some areas the neglect would be astronomical. And the notion they were not divided up among the and abuse of people is truly horrifying. that benefits to the better off could be contemporary alphabet agencies -­ But most of these services are already recouped with progressive taxes is, at AFDC, or GA, or SSI, or UE -- according decentraliwd, although they may, thank­ least for now, quixotic. Moreover, univer­ to largely irrelevant criteria. fully, be somewhat constrained by fed­ salism is no easy cure for the problems All of which is to say the welfare eral or state guidelines. And many of in service delivery either, because os­ state requires that we be sufficiently the very worst services are delivered by tensibly universal services are typically tough minded and discriminating not private agencies undercontl'flct to gov­ subverted by the actual politics of im­ only to attack the welfare state for its ernment, as is the case in foster care for plementation. Our supposedly "univer­ failures, but to defend it for what it the young, or nursing homes for the old. sal" school system is a good example. achieves, and prepared to fight for even Federal or state oversight is not what What then is left to be said about re­ modest reforms. e distorts these agencies; it is what keeps form of the welfare state? I think the Frances Fox Piven, a DSA Vice Chair, them from being even more abusive in most important steps are very obvious. teaches political science at the CUNY. their dealings with people too vulner­ able to defend themselves, such as th very old, or the disabled, or children, o Change the USA! Join the DSA! the retarded. Members of the Democratic Socialists of America work in every day-to-day Another much talked about m­ struggle for social justice. We bring a strategy for building alliances among all the edy takes an entirely different tack. movements for social change. And we bring a vision of a society that can satisfy the is not addressed to the problem of an demands for dignity and justice -- a socialist society. Join the people working to bring together all the movements for social change ... and to bring together day-to-day battles encroaching state, but to weak political and long-term strategies and visions. Join DSA support, particularly for the means­ tested programs. The solution, we are _Send me more information about democratic socialism. told, is to eliminate programs that single _Enclosed find my dues(_$50 sustaining; _$35 regular; _$15 limited income. out the needy in favor of programs that Dues include a subscription to DEMOCRATIC LEFT.) embrace virtually everyone, and which _I want to subscribe to DEMOCRATIC LEFT: _$15 sustaining; _$8 regular. will therefore presumably be supported by virtually everyone. This call for Send to: Democratic Socialists of America, 15 Dutch St., Suite 500, New York, "universalism" is actually a longstanding NY 10038. Telephone: 212-962-0390. • favorite among social welfare experts, Name ______who often base their faith on the expe­ Address ______~ rience with children's allowances in Western Europe. City/State!ZiP-'------Phone Union/SchooVAffiliation ------Universalism is more incantation

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 14 MARCH· APRIL 1990 Elections in Brazil: A Victory for More of the Same by Donald Ramos

At a time when the collapse of com­ munist rule in Eastern Europe domi­ nates the media and European parties trip over themselves removing the word "communist" from their names and its symbol from their flags, it seeDll>ohock­ ing that in Brazil's recent presidential elections a major candidate used the, red star as his symbol. More remark­ able is that the candidate, Luiz Inacio da Silva, better known by his legally adopted nickname Lula, came within a ,_ few percentage points of winning the Lula speaks to supporters prior to the election. elections against an attractive and ex- j opened Lula to criticism for making presidential campaign focused on the tremely well financed candidate, Fer- deals and shifting from his original system's corruption and inability to 1 nando Collor de Mello. platform. Not an insignificant factor govern effectively, it was not a repudia­ In the December 17 runoff Collor was anticommunism which has been a tion of the system itself. Collor repre­ won 43 percent of the nearly 83 million part of Brazil's seen~ almost as long as sents the modernized face of a tradi­ votes cast to Lula's 38 percent. The re­ it has in the United States. Lastly, a tional political elite. One Brazilian maining 19 percent was divided between major reason for Collor's narrow vie- commentator described the situation abstentions and nullified votes. The tory was the support he enjoyed from as Sarneyism against Samey. reasons for Lula's defeat are varied. Brazil's major media, especially the Globo In fact, the circumstances of his The final days of the campaign were group with which he has personal ties. election ensure that Collor must rely dirty with Lula being accu...c;ed of illiter­ upon the old guard. He will take office acy -- a clear reference to his working A Status Quo Victory? in March without a clear mandate and class background. In addition to at­ On the surface the election appeared without a political base. The party whose tacking Lula's personal life, Collor in­ to be a repudiation of the past. In No- standard he carried, the National Re­ voked images of social chaos if Lula vember's balloting, the ruling party can- construction Party (PRN), has only a were to win -- images of land seizures didate, Ulysses Guimar, an octogenar- small representation in Congress. As and needless strikes. These appeals to ian veteran of Brazil's political wars, with so many other parties, Lula's PT the profoundly cl assist nature of Brazil­ garnered no more than 10 percent of . bein~ a notable exceptio~, the _P_RN is a ian society plainly worked, as Lula was the votes cast-- clearly a repudiation of creation of the moment s poht1cal ne­ defeated soundly in the nation's tradi­ the politicnl lrodership of President Jose cessities. Collor's own political career tional areas and, paradoxically, in Lula's Sarney. suggests the wea.k hold that parties have: home state of Sao Paulo. But viewed more closely, the vie- in ten years, he was a member of no less But also a problem was the nature tory of Collor really reflected a victory than five different p~rties. of the left alliance led by Lula's Labor for the status quo. Collor's political To govern effectively, Collor must Party. After the November elections career has been tied to pro-military forge a congressional base of support. had narrowed the field to Lula and C.ollor, groups: first as the government ap- ~is search ~or support can o.nly take Lula was able to build a coalition of the pointed mayor of Maceind then as a h.1m to t~e ~~ht an~ center-nght par­ left -- but it was unstable and failed to federal deputy in an appointment from ~1~ and md1vidu11~~ '? co~~ess. There overcome the personal and ideological another pro-military party. In 1984's 15 little do.ubt that 1t ts w1t?m thn~ b~oc differences among its various parties indirect presidential elections, he voted that he wtlJ c~ate a working ?13J~nty and personalities. Moreover the nego­ against the popular anti-military can- for many of h~s programs. But 1t w1l.l be tiations which produced the coalition didnte, Tancrc.-doNeves. While Collor's a temporary VJCtory unless he can achieve

DEMO( RATIC Lrrr 15 MARCH· APRIL 1990 results in the economy. It was the dete­ the March 15 inauguration date, pre­ must be seen as impressive. riorating economy that reduced Presi­ ferring to let the economy further dete­ From the perspective of the PT, dent Sarney to a cipher. Each failed riorate, no doubt in hopes of winning this election was a part of a longer eoonomic package produced greater and support for a series of measures he prom­ process of creating a political opening greater cynicism and discontent. CoUor ises to reveal only then. It appears that in Brazil. It was not seen as an attempt andhisadvisorshavemademanyprom­ his solution to the problem will be the to implement socialism, but rather as a ises including the affirmation that in standard International Monetary Fund phase in a process of "accumulating thirteen months, he will have reduced prescription -- austerity, deficit reduc­ forces." The PT viewed the existing the monthly inflation rate to 5 percent tion, privatization, and inducement to political context as dominated by from a rate that about 50 percent in foreign investment. Many ofthe chan~ "pseudo-liberalism" --a political ideol­ February. Collor has already proposed are either ogy devoid of coherence and without cosmetic or will create more social con­ serious possibilities of producing real A Working Class Mandate flict: reducing the numberofministries development. From this perspective, an To achieve real progress in economic from twenty-three to twelve, thus en­ electoral victory by any of the "left" matters will require a social pact that dangering the jobs of most federal em­ candidates would have been seen as cuts across class interests. The tradi­ ployees; privatizing state-owned money­ positive, with a victory by Lula being tional path of resolving the economic losingenterprises and risking increased seen as creating the greatest opening. crisis on the backs of workers and the unemployment; decentralizing environ­ Such a victory would have been seen poor has its limits, even in Brazil. But mental control, thus turning power over as a watershed on par, albeit in a signifi­ at this point an enduring, broadly based to many who profit from ecological cantly different way, with the revolu­ social pact seems unlikely. A signifi­ destruction; encouraging foreign invest- tion of 1930 or the military counter­ cant part of the Catholic Church sup­ revolution of 1964. It did not happen, ported Lula, while Collar received the To achieve real progress but what emerged was a fragile coali­ supportofBrazil'sgrowingPentecostal will require a pact that tion of the left, and a cooperative rela­ groups. While key elements of the tionship with key elements of a Catho­ Catholic Church called for cooperation cuts across class interests. lic Church which, unusually, sees sup­ in the days after the election, they again ment only to hurt many of Brazil's non­ porters of the theology of liberation in emphasized the centrality of land re­ ascendancy at the moment. competitive industries. Furthermore, a form, social justice, and redistribution key problem for Brazil is land reform. The strategy of the PT also called of wealth. Collor campaigned as the Collar has promised to provide land for for an alliance of the working classes champion of the poor and the church (clases populares) and the middle class. 500,000 families within five years. The has already announced that it will While clearly concerned with the imme­ key will be whether he will resettle these monitor Collor's administration to en­ diate election, the PT sought to con­ people on good land, supported by credit sure that he carries out his campaign struct a political platform that would and services, or simply push them into promises. By the same token; the PT's woo the middle class by offering a unusable areas. real base of support is the labor move­ longterm process of restructuring lead­ ment, which Lula helped forge into a ing to a pluralistic and democratic soci­ An Opening for the Left major force. The Central U nico de ety. Pending a close examination of the While the PT lost the runoff elec­ Trabalhadores (CUT) includes some election returns, it appears that this tion, its showing was impressive. It ag­ 1,600 unions with eighteen million coalition failed to evolve sufficiently. gressively defined its position in ways members. Collar had the support of the The PT will now have to evaluate its that are imposfilble in the United States. much smaller Confederaal dos Trabal­ platform and determine whether it It campaigned on a platform that in­ hadores (CGT), whose leader, Antonio should smooth the edges of a polarizing cluded suspending payment on the debt, Rogerio Magri, is not able to speak for ideology and join with the broad left or land reform, raising wages while freez­ organized labor and has said he would continue to go it alone. At the moment, ing prices to restore real purchasing have no objection to appointing a non­ it appears that the left coalition may power, and placing a civilian at the union figure as Minister of Labor. survive the political reshuffling that Col­ head of a reorganized defense depart­ And there are other obstacles to lor's victory is producing. ment. During the campaign Lula ham­ such a social pact. Brazil is one of the For Collar, the problems are just mered away at the horrendous social in­ most inequitable societies in the world. beginning. Having won the election, he equities gnawingat the soul ofthe coun­ The current economic disaster -- 1,765 now must find a way to govern. Failure try. He saw the election as a means of percent inflation in 1989, a foreign debt to resolve Brazil's problems in a fair politicizing the people, especially the of over $110 billion, and a domestic way will produceturmoitand even more poor. He argued for redistribution of debt equal to 15 percent of the GNP -­ cynicism. The difficulties facing Fer­ wealth, for an end to decapitalization has only exacerbated the problems in­ and speculation, and for a society based nando Collar de Mello are daunting herent in Brazil's hiStorical develop­ on fairness. In such a polarized cam­ ones. e ment. Despite the escalating nature of paign and with his opponent in control the economic crisis, Collor has rejected of so many resources, Lula's showing Donald Ramos teaches history at Cleve­ the opportunity to take office ahead of land State University.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 16 MARCH· APRIL 1990 Update on the Social Charter by Vania Del Borgo

I n the grand scheme of things occur­ ring in the final weeks of the decade, the adoption by the European Community of the Charter of Fundamental Social Rights may rank as a historical foot­ note and no more. Yet coming as it does on the heels of momentous change in the postwar panorama it deserves a closer look. The Charter was passed in Decem­ ber at the Strasbourg summit of the Eu­ ropean Council, the E.C.'s highest deci­ sion-making body, by eleven votes to Worker at a steel factory in England. one, with Margaret Thatcher casting French socialist, cut a quietly charis­ the Labor left, it went a long way to­ the minority vote. A modest document, matic figure as the ghost of Europe's ward winning the support of the main­ it is conceived of as a launching pad for Christmas past, with his talk of fair stream of the TUC and of Neil Kin­ future E.C. legislation to protect wages, wages, workers' control, and a people's nock's Labor party, who, seeing in it a working conditions, social security, col­ Europe. The masterstroke of his cam­ window of electoral opportunity, lective bargaining, and the right to strike paign for the Charter was his speech to promptly set about lambasting in the unified European market of 1993 the British Trade Union Council (TUC) Thatcher's intransigence on the Social and beyond. at the end of 1988, asking for labor's Charter. In short, Delors succeeded in • In the year leading up to the sum­ support in building a "Social Europe," animating Thatcher's domestic opposi­ mit the Charter had been at the center in effect an appeal to labor as a transna­ tion, undermining her position in her of a well-publicized battle between tional social force. own home turf. (We can expect to see Margaret Thatcher and Jacques De­ The TUC and the Labor party had more of this kind of maneuvering as the lors, the European Commissioner, over on the whole been hostile or indifferent Commission struggles to put some flesh Europe's future complexion: Thatcher to the 1992 project and to the E.C. gen­ onto the bare bones of the Charter.) played Adam Smith to Delors' Lord erally, partly as the result of a long­ But the battle was not won on tac­ Keynes. standing aversion to things European tics alone. Britain's position on the Social Thatcher's argument, famously ar­ (read "Continental") that cuts across Charter, as on a good many other E.C. ticulated at the College d' Europe in party lines in Britain. It's only in the matters, is in a minority of one. And Bruges Belgium, in September 1988, last year that the Labor party dropped given the united front of the eleven and, and fiercely reiterated since, is that the its platform plank calling for British perhaps more important, the strong Charter's provisions would add inflexi­ withdrawal from the E.C. On the left backingofFranceand Germany, whose bility to the labor market and aggravate wing of the party, opposition to the alliance is decisive in Community pol­ unemployment. She served up her de­ Community was compounded by a con­ icy-making, the adoption of the docu­ regulatory message in terms ofnational ception of the E.C. as simply a rich ment in some form was a foregone con­ sovereignty, evoking a pan-European man's club with a cut-and-dried free clusion. bogeyman: "We have not rolled back market agenda and no progressive po­ So the E.C. has a Social Charter. the frontiers of the state successfully in tential. (While the Labor left's analysis What does this mean? Is it an unquali­ Britain, only to see them re-imposed at has its merits, it bas proved in the here fied victory for the forces of good in a Europmn level, with a European super­ and now to be a recipe for disengage­ Europe? Or did Thatcher ultimately win? state exercising a new dominance from ment and paralysis.) The answer is a contradictory one. The Brussels," s~e spat in Bruges. If Delors' appeal to the British la­ Charter does represent an affirmation Delors, a clever tactician and oldtime bor movement didn't move segments of by the E.C. of Europe's progressive

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 17 MARCH- APRIL 1990 Thatcher. She is under considerable pressure from British finance capital, a pillar of the modem Conservative party, CLASSIFIED to make concessions to policies she dis­ POSTION AVAILABLE IMMEDI­ agrees with in order to stay in the game. ATELY: DSA's New York office has an British high finance sees the E.C., and opening for FinanciaJ Manager/Oftice particularly the plans for monetary un­ Manager to handJe its bookkeeping, fi­ ion, as essential to its survival after nancial transactions, and purchasing. 1992, and is thus particularly vulner­ Will train. Must be detail oriented and able to suggestions of two tiers. good with figures. Bookkeeping and In the end the most useful view of computer literacy preferred. Compen­ the Charter is that it is no more than a sation: $17,000 -- $19,000 plus bene­ first salvo in the campaign for Social fits. "Movement hours." Affirmative Europe -- a warning signal to progres­ action employer. Send letter and res­ sive forces to get in on what up till now ume to: DSA, Hiring Committee, 15 has been largely the domain of elites. Dutch St., #500, NY, NY 10038. Much of the work of developing a body of Europe-wide social policy has yet to MEET OTHER LEFT SINGLES through the Concerned Singles Newsletter. All areas begin. In this connection, the first real and ages. Box 5550, Stockbridge, MA standoffis around the comer, when de­ 01262 for a free sample. A worker at an engineering company in bate on the European Commission's England. social action program, a series of legis­ COMMUNITY JOBS, socially responsible lative proposals derived from the Char­ job opportunities. Subscribe to the only heritage and a rebuff to Thatcherism, ter, begins in earnest in the next weeks nationwide listing covering organizing, and is therefore a small victory for the and months. disarmament, labor, environment, and more. left. On the other hand, it is nothing The agenda of Social Europe is fur­ $3.50/sample. $12/6 issues. Box DS, 1516 P more than a declaration ofintent on the ther complicated by events in Eastern Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20005. part of the member states. Likewise, Europe. For instance, the Social Char­ many of its more radical aspects, such ter was in part meant to avert "social ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITIES across North America welcome your visit. Live in as a commitment to the participation of dumping," the shift of manufacturing workers in company decision-making, the country with others who value equality, job;; to Spain, Pcrtugal, and Greece where ecology, and non-violence. Ask for our were attenuated in the negotiating proc- unionization and wage levels are low. It brochure: Federation of Egalitarian ess. Most of the Charter's advocates imposes no controls on say, German Communities--Twin Oaks, Rt. 4, Box 169L, m d outside the E.C. are deeply manufacturers moving their plants to Louise, VA 23093. Free ($2 apreciated.) disapoint by the final draft. East Germany where workers are not ~--...i.-view of this some have been only cheap and German-speaking but Classified advertising rates are $2 per line, tempted to band victory to Thatcher widely anti-union. The E.C. may re­ $50 per column inch. Payment in adoonce. after all: From a position of weakness, solve this byreoonciling a reunited Ger­ There is a twenty percent discount ifad(s) they argue, she managed to win conces­ many within an enlarged Community, runs two or more times. We reserve the right to reject ads. sions in tone that enfeebled the Char­ a possibility that is not discounted by ter, with Delors paying a meek visit to the carefully-worded endorsement of 10 Downing Street days before the German "unity" issued by the twelve at decade, the field is wide open for shap­ 5l.._ summit. Ancl,.betterstill, after the docu­ Strasbourg. It may also make arrange­ ing the post-postwar world along en­ / ~n suitably amended, she ments to absorb the rest of Eastern tirely new lines. got away with withholding her vote, Europe after 1992, but for the moment If the cold war can, in part, be thereby depriving the document of the those are open questions. blamed for hampering the development legal standing that unanimity would Yet to the extent that developments of democratic socialism in Europe and have conferred on it. East of Brussels have broadened the elsewhere, then surely its demise her­ Although Thatcher did play her hand parameters of the possible across the alds renewed opportunities. In this well, her crusade against the Charter is Continent, the work of Social Europe context, the battle for Social Europe, widely viewed as part of a generally may well be facilitated. The sheer speed East and West, may be fought in a far defensive British posture vis a vis the ofevents there has thrown the Commu­ more favorable political and intellec­ E.C. that is likely to characterize future nity to the center ofan entirely changed tual climate than Wll have known, and negotiations on social policy. The no­ geopolitical reality. It is now conceiv­ the small victory at Strasbourg may be tion of a two-tier Europe with a core of able that the Europe ofthe twelve could more a piece of Europe's future than a member states moving ahead to higher become the Europe of the nineteen, or tribute to its past. e levels of integration, leaving Britian the twenty-two, or the thirty~ight. With behind, has been used to great effect in such dramatic reoonfigurations within VaniaDelBorgo, aDSAe[>is studying at recent years to force cooperation from the realm of the possible in the next the London School of Economics.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 18 MARCH· APRIL 1990 One Year of Struggle on the Eastern Airlines Picket Line by Paul Baicich or the White House staff itaelO in be­ havior that would otherwise shame a government pretending to be "fair and equitable." the Eastern strike began in ~en The legislative branch has been ex­ March, 1989, many observers thought ceedingly slow to provide succor for the it would be over quickly. That was not strikers. After the Congress finally to be the case. passed a mild bill to "investigate and Within the first days of the strike, make recommendations" on the East­ Eastern Airlines was crippled and vir­ ern Airlines situation, Bush vetoed it at tually shut down. Some 8,000 Interna­ Thanksgiving. (This move prompted tional Association of Machinists and ALPA and TWU to drop their sympathy Aerospace Workers (!AM), joined by the strike. To this date, neither union has Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and any of its sympathy strikers back to the flight attendants' Transport Work­ work.) This important veto override is ers Union (TWU), responded to Frank scheduled for a House vote in early Lorenzo's oorporate greed, vrorker abuse, March. and the looting of the airline's assets in Labor solidarity, both between the whether securing a new owner will an impressive show of solidarity. Al­ unions and from the community, was happen in time to save the airline re- though the strikers were denied a quick impressive at first. Solidarity, how- main unanswered questions. ' victory, they simply would not cave in ever, was not enough. While the call of Other questions plague the labor and disappear. The IAM lines continue "No more PATCOs" reverberated movement. Whatifanother"Lorenzo" to remain solid, with only a smattering throughout the labor movement at the pulled off a similar situation? After all, of members crossing the line. beginning of the strike, the cry grew Lorenzo himself had practically done it But by filing for protection under dimmer as the months passed and no all once before with Continental Air­ Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy oode within easy solution was devised. lines, though admittedly the Eastern a week after the strike began, Lorenzo Fortunately for the strikers, Lorenzo Airlines' unions were able to drag him succeeded in sidelining the unions' plans. has fared even worse. Eastern is finally down to slow-motion speed. Would labor Although it was not to be that easy, the being brought to the breaking point. and its supporters be more prepared to bankruptcy proc~ings do not tolerate Lorenzo loses between one million and take on the battle "next time?" room for workers' rights nor labor's three million dollars a day, with 1989 These lessons, experiences, and ques­ arguments. Bankruptcy exists to medi­ losses exceeding $850 million. Having tions are not only for labor to consider, ate between rival business interests. first secured the loyalty of the creditors , but for labor's supporters as well. The The unions were locked out of the proc­ by pledging to repay 100 percent of the 1 real culprit is not Lorenzo, but the frus­ ess, except in the role of "another credi­ debts owed, Lorenzo recently readjusted trating system of American labor rela­ tor." In addition, the judiciary's bias his promise to a mere 10 percent up tionsand anti-labor bias fostered in this was also exhibited by the way it handled frontandanother70percentbytheend country. American labor relations fail the possibility of secondary strikes and of the century, with no interest. The to hold a candle to policies deemed restricted other labor activity. creditors committee and the preferred commonplace in Western Europe. It is The executive branch of the gov­ shareholders have now lost confidenc.e time to enter the 1990s with an ap­ ernment was even more inhospitable. to the point that they have abandoned proach to labor struggles appropriate to While turning a deaf ear to the Eastern Lorenzo's corner and have started to the demands of the decade. Perhaps workers, President Bush heaped praise explore the possibility of liquidation or the place to start is still Eastern. e on the courageous workers in Eastern sale. The unions are hoping for sale of Europe. The executive branch was in­ the airline to someone they can work Paul Baicich, a member of DSA, has fluenced by Lorenzo's cronies (whether with. What sacrifiais the workers might been an JAM worker for ouer thirteen in the Department of Transportation, have to make with a new owner, and years in the airline industry.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 19 MARCH- APRIL 1990 Books and Literature Available through the DSA Office DSAPrice #3 The Common Good: Stalemate or Recxm­ Books $1.50_ Socialism: Past and Future, by Michael struction by Gar Alperovitz. #4 Gentrification, Strategic Initiatives, and Harrington. Argues that democratic social­ $1.50_ ism is the only alternative for 21st century. $19.00_ , ~~t~~ Remaking Love: The Feminization of Sex, by Barbara Ehrenreich, Elizabeth Heee, & Glo­ ~cat~/Products ria Jacobs. Published at $15.95. $12.00_ The Long-Distance Runner, by Michael Democratic Left, DSA'e bimonthly periodi- Harrington. An autobiography that spans cal. $8.00/one year subscription Moat cur­ the past two decades. Published at $19.95 $17.00_ rent and back issues available in quantity. $.60_ Fear of Falling: The Inner li!eoftbe Middle Uilior Voice, the Publication of the DSA Labor Clase, by BarbaraEhrenreich. Examines the Commission. Moat recent issue available. $.50_ attitudes held by the middle class. $19.00_ Religious Socialism, the publication of the The New American Poverty, by Michael DSA Religion and Socialism Commieeion. One Harrington. Paperback. $7.00_ year subscription. $5.00_ Why Americans Don't Vote by Frances Fox Not Far Enough, the newsletter of the DSA Piven and Richard Cloward. Paperback. $9.00_ Feminist Comm.ission. One year subscription TheMeanSeason:TheAttackontheWelfare included with annual Commission dues. $10.00_ State by Fred Block, Richard Cloward, Bar­ Nuestra Lucha/Our Struggle, the newsletter bara Ehrenreich, and Frances Fox Piven. of the DSA Latino, Anti-Racism, and Afro­ Paperback. $7.00_ American Commissions. $.50_ A Margin of Hope: An Intellectual Autobiog­ TheActiviet, DSA Youth Section newsletter. $.60_ raphy by Irving Howe. Paperback. $7.00_ DSAbuttona. Two styles: plain fist-and-rose ~ Socialism and America by Irving Howe. Debi, and fist-and-roee held by blo.ck and white ~ the Thirties, & American execptionalism. $5.00_ clasped hands. $1 each. $1.00_ The American Evasion of Philoeophy: A Ge­ DebePoetcard, depicting the life and legacy of nealogy of Pragmatism by Corne! West. Eugene Debs. $ .50 each or 12 for $5. $ .60_ Paperback. $18.00_ Solidarity bumpersticker $1.00_ The Next Left: The History of a Future by Socialist Forum, DSA's discussion bulletin. $1.60_ Michael Harrington. Paperback. $8.00_ Video: New American Poverty by Michael -~ The Crisis in Historical Mat.erialism by Stanley Harrington. 60 minutes. $26.00_ $10.00_ Video: Towards a New Socinlism by Michael Harrington. 60 minutes. $26.00_ f :;n~~:~ets Fist-and-Rose Tee-Shirts. Sm., med., lg., & A Socialist Perspective on the Politics of J~~E;S~ooo_ Poverty by Michael Harrington, with contri­ butions by Barbara Eh.renreich, William Julius . - Wilson, and Mark Levinson. Special bulk ---- rate: $.20/copy for orders of 20 or more. $1.00_ We are Democratic Socialists with a V1Sion of Democratic Promise: Ideas for Turning the Future. America in a Progressive Direction. Articles Where We Stand, a position statement of by Robert Kuttner, Michael Harrington, & DSA William Julius Wilson, among others. $.50_ What Socialism Is.. .And Is Not. Socialist-Feminst Reader. 200 pages. $10.00_ Socialism Informs the Best of Our Politics, Toward A Soci.amt Theory of Racism by Come! a pamphlet written by Michael Harrington. West. $1.50_ A Better World in Birth, the statement of Eastern Europe and Democratic Socialism the DSA Youth Section. After the Cold War $.60_ For A More Livable World, the brochure Toward a Democratic Socialimn· Theory, Strat,. of the Religion and Socialism Commission. egy, and Vision by Joseph Schwartz. DSA's Send a stamped. aelf-addreued envelope. We will bill for 1hipping bulk theory and practice in an historical context. $1.00_ orden. Bul.korden: 10%offon5·9copie1;2~offon 10-14;30%on 15 The Black Church and Marx.ism by James or more copiee. Po.tage: Orden under $.50, add $.45 or aend ltamJ>8. Cone. $.60_ Orden from $.50 to $2.00 add $.65 for polltage and handling. Orden Perspectives on Lesbian and Gay Liberation from $2.00to $5.00, add $1.25. Orden from $5.00 to $10.00 add $2.00. and Socialism. $1.00_ We will bill for postage on orden over $10.00. • The Question of SociaHsm by Michael Har­ Make checb payable to Democratic Socialiat.I of America, 15 Dutch rington and Alec Nove. $2.00_ Street, Su.ite 500, New York, NY 10038. The Politics of Housing Crisis by Peter Dreier. Alternative Pamphlet Series: $.60_ #2 Democracy & Productivity in the Future ADDRESS American Economy by Lou Ferleger and Jay R. Mandie. $1.60_ CITY/STATE!ZIP

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 20 MARCH· APRIL 1990 REVIEWS "."here Sociology Meets Politics

by Neil McLaughlin

WHOSE KEEPER? SOCIAL SCIENCE AND MORAL OBLIGATION byAlan Wolfe, UnivereityofCaliforniaPrees: 1989.

The collapse ofStalinism in Eastern Europe has opened up new space for dealing with the problems of our society. The 1990s are likely to be a decade with more debate about the nature of the "good society" than any in recent memory. Discussions about the proper balance between market, state, and civil society are going to be center stage. For these reasons, Alan Wolfe's book on civil society, Whose Keeper?, is "possessive individualism" that gives rise to social isolation one of the more important books to be published in quite epidemics of crime and drugs, teen suicides, and many of some time. th~ other indicators of social disintegration. Wolfe makes two major points as he grapples with the The second and perhaps more innovative argument in dilemma contemporary liberal democrats face when they try Whose Keeper? is Wolfe's assertion that "social scientists are to balanc:e the competing moral claims of self, family, large moral philosophers in disguise. "With the collapse of religion scale-society, and future generations. First, Wolfe argues for as the unifying moral language of modern society, as well as • the importance of strengthening civil society -- that is fam­ what Wolfe sees as the bankruptcy of the dominant political ily, and social institutions such as ne.igh~rhood, vol~ntary ideologies of both the left and right, modern social science c hes:--.,Jsbe read as a remains the sole repository of moral reasoning. Wolfe con­ warning to those "free market" ealogues w o look to the vincingly argues that the dominance of economics and politi­ coll~p~ofcommunismasanuneq · · oryformarket cal science in contemporary social science has resulted in the capitalism, Wolfe reminds us that classical theorists of undue privileging of both the market and the state. Wolfe market society did not believe society could operate without argues that "modem liberal democrats" should ally with the human interaction and moral reasoning. The Adam Smith of better traditions of sociology in order to identify the ways in The Wealth of Nations was, Wolfe reminds us, also the which ordinacy people socially construct "moral rules through author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. everyday interaction with others." Smith would have been horrified by a society that oper­ Wolfe's concern with the value of social institutions ated solely by market processes. Yet Smith's followers in the b~ngs him to what is probably the most controversial part of "Chicago school" of economics have taken idolatry of the his book: an extended analysis of the social democratic states market to an extreme. Wolfe offers a scathing critique of the of Scandinavia. While the United States has relied too ?hicago "rational choice" approach -- a perspective that heavily on the market, Wolfe argues, the social democratic mterprets all social behavior in economic terms. In an nations have erred in the opposite direction by allowing the analysis similar to that outlined in Michael Walzer's seminal state to take over more and more aspects of social life. What work Spheres of Justice, Wolfe argues that values appropri­ Wolfe calls the generation of the "golden age" -- those who ate for certain market exchanges have disastrous conse­ built the welfare states and are now nearing retirement -­ quences if allowed to govern other human activities. One lived a life characterized by both material satisfaction and a Chicago school theorist explains suicide as the point in some­ social solidarity born ofa common purpose and struggle. For one's life "when the total discounted lifetime utility Wolfe, this social democratic culture has been eroded by an remaining... reaches zero." Another argues that the "best over reliance on "statist" solutions to social problems. solution to the problem of surrogate mothering is to allow Contemporary S>Ci.al democracy has replaced the moral energy parents to contract freely on the market." of its early days with a bureaucratic approach. The younger Wolfe has written a brilliant critique of contemporary generations now lack a commitment to the values that made American society, a society where public policy is dominated the welfare state possible in the first place. by market values. These market relations Wolfe argues ' , Some early negative responses to Whose Keeper? focused erode social solidarity between generations; they promote a Co111i11ued on page 23

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 21 MARCH· APRIL 1990 REVIEWS Roger and Me: Corporate Critique Minus the Collective Action by Paul Garver

I fyou are a typical Demcoratic Left reader, you've proba­ bly seen Roger and Me, or at least read about it. An obscure left-wing documentary reborn for the suburban mall cinema as a boffo comedy, it brilliantly succeeds in both genres. The narrative thread of the film is the quixotic quest of actor/director Michael Moore to bring General Motors chair Roger Smith to view the devastation brought to Flint when GM relocates. Swiftly and deftly, Moore blends his own coming-of-age in the GM-flagship company town Flint with the story of the city itself, from its heyday to its current demise. Along the way we encounter morally bankrupt celebrities with practiced grins assuring us that all will be well, wild-eyed boosters of expensive and doomed schemes for economic revitalization, and a series of security guards andbureaucraticsurrogatesfortheelusiveMr.Smith. These UAW worker holding a sign refering to GM's 1983 profits. scenes are interspersed with interviews with dazed victims and plucky survivors, sometimes in the very process of being action. I saw Roger and Me at its opening at the New York evicted from their premises. In a stunningjuxtaposition, one Film Festival, where the audience gave Moore and his crew family is evicted on Christmas Eve, while Roger Smith sanc­ a five-minute standingovation. In his post-film interview, as timoniously invokes the Dickensian spirit of Christmas. in many subsequent discussions, Moore stressed his concern The film seduces the viewer from the outset with its wit that the viewer take responsibility for action. But there was and verve, and delicately balances laughter, savage satire, something disquieting about the reactions of this audience, and empathy for the workers and community tossed on the including my own. We escape too easily, feel too smug at the scrapheap by corporate decision-makers. Moore becomes a end of the film. We seem to feel self-righteous anger at the kind of shambling, goofy prophet, wielding his microphone villains pilloried on the screen, but we do not assume any like Diogenes his lantern, asking someone to take personal moral responsibility. I fear that the most likely action taken, responsibility for the cataclysm. As an artist, this first-time at least by that audience, will be to discover another rationale filmmaker, financed by makeshift expedients like bingo for not buying a U.S.-made GM car, an accelerating con­ games, has more than fulfilled his share of responsibility. sumer trend of little use to the remaining 50,000 autowork­ MuchofthecriticismofRogerandMe (byHarlanJacob­ ers in Flint! son in Film Comment and by Pauline Kael in the New While it is unreasonable to demand of Moore a program­ Yorlter) has concentrated on its failures as a historically matic manifesto, we might expect hints of the type of appro­ accurate documentary. Moore defends as artistically neces­ priate measures that should have, or could be, taken. Unfor­ sa.ry his compression of time and chronological inversion of tunately, by totally ignoring those limited efforts that were events. While these devices exaggerate the suddenness of the made to address the problems of Flint autoworkers, the film layoffs and closings and make the civic boosterism appear fails to address solutions to the situation jt so trenchantly more ridiculous than it actually was, they do not mar the exposes. Perhaps, like Lorraine Gray's more standard but integrity of the film. I also disagree with Pauline Kael's equally provocative film documentary, Global Assembly Line, charge that the film allows audiences to "laugh at ordinary Roger and Me would be most useful to activists with a guide. working people and still feel they are taking a politically My contribution to the hypothetical study guide includes correct position." If Moore was more unfair to celebrities three sections: collective action, legislation, and interna­ and official spokespeople -- well, that's satire. tional labor solidarity. What concerns me more are the film's implications for The only collective action we see in the film are clips of

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 22 MARCH· APRIL 1990 the original Flint sitdown strike in 1937, and a pathetic little WHOSE KEEPER'! march of four men on the day that plant closed. The United Continued from page 21. Auto Workers exists only to gladly give GM concessions, and bed comfortably share a with the company. Owen Bieber ?n. t~ critiqu~ of social democracy. Some have argued that ~akes a ca~~ appearance as a surprised celebrity uttering it 1S irresponsible to criticize the Scandinavian model when into Moore s microphone. And yet in fact the union had done the U.~. wel~arestate~underattack. From this perspective, what it ~ould wit~n the limits of collective bargaining to Wolfe 1S guilty of a simple-minded "plague on both your protect J~bs an? mcomes, and it continues to represent houses" approach that equates the sins of the market with 50,000 Flmt workers. Perhaps there were other strategies, those of the state. There is an element of truth here: In other forms of struggle available (and Moore publicly sup­ reading Whose Keeper?, one can forget that the left in the ports the New Directions caucus), but the film itself projects United States must relegitimize the need for a decent and no hope for collective activity, either at the workplace or in universal welfare state. the community. Nonetheless, it would be wrong to dismiss this book so What of political action? Where else but in the realm of easily. Wolfe is careful to support the welfare state over the legislated public policy can there be effective measures to "free market." "There is little doubt," he writes, "that the assist endangered communities and unemployed workers? welfare state does a better job than the market of organizing Unions like the UAW and Machinists have tried for decades obligation to strangers." For Wolfe, the Scandinavian wel­ with little interest from middle strata allies, to promo~ fare states count among the few "success stories in 20th Swedish-style social policies for job training, industrial revi­ century politics." These states have "as close to the good life talization, aid to distressed communities, etc. Is the viewer as.~ ~ible in any Western liberal democracy." Although ofRoger and Me more likely tojoin such a coalition? The film cnt1c1zmg the European welfare state is not the first task of contains no pointer in that direction. American leftists, we should be confident enough in our The film suggests that the 30,000 jobs lost in Flint were support of the welfare state that we are not threatened by s~ipped by GM to Mexico (This is somewhat misleading, Wolfe's reservations. smce most current GM production in Mexico is in parts My differences with Wolfe lie elsewhere. Viewed from rather than assembly). Nevertheless, General Motors did within the walls of academia, Wolfe's book isa breath of fresh recently surpass the national oil company as the largest air -- a tour de force of scholarship and intellectual employer in Mexico, and clearly has long-range plans to crafts- ~ manship. Wolfe practices a sociology that deals with issues ' move much of their production to low-wage areas. Encour­ of consequence. He is a "public intellectual" in the tradition aged by favorable tax and tariff policies of both the United of t~e ~t American sociologists such as C. Wright Mills, States and Mexican governments, this shift clearly indicates David Riesman, and W.E.B. Du Bois. ~hat _GM will continue to place its bottomline over any But Wolfe gives the sociology profession too central a 1magmary concern for its Michigan origins. Such economic role. The kind of moral reasoning he seeks can become the reali.ties suggest that the only long-range strategy to protect dominant way of life in our society only as a result of massive the mterest.s of U.S. workers must include assistance to structural changes brought about by political movements genuinely independent workers' unions in Mexico, both to and parties. The social democratic parties of Western Eu­ reduce the enormous disparity in wages and to encourage the rope need, as Wolfe suggests, a shot of idealism and renewed growth of a domestic consumer market in Mexico. comm,itment ~~he values of their social movement origins. In Flint, as in Krakow or Lille, an industrial machine ~ol.fe s descnptlon of the problems of social democracy is built at great human and environmental cost, is rusting'. sm11lar to the analysis outlined in Michael Harrington's last Though never well-balanced nor genuinely decent, indus­ book, Socialism: Past and Future, and in Bogdan Denitch's t~al society did improve working-class living standards, and forthco~ing,book, !he Socialist Debate. But Harrington vtbrant, bustling communities typically surrounded facto­ and Derutch s solutions are more compelling than Wolfe's ries. Now in the new international division of labor1 the somewhat vague talk of civil society. creative destructiveness of global capitalism combines with . A revitalized social democratic movement, argue Har­ the collapse of centrally planned "socialism" to devastate nngton and Denitch, is the best hope for preserving the civil older industrial communities and the workers in them. society '":'olfe desires. Social democracy must, of course, do If we .believe that the economy should serve the people, a better JOb of relating to the "new social movements" of and not vtce versa, we must build societies in which morality feminism, ecology, and anti racism. And as the Cold War takes precedence over the workings of the free market. It is ends, what better source of moral idealism could there be ultimately absurd to bring Roger Smith to Flint. Neither GM than recommitting the socialist movement to a world econ­ nor any government economic planning agency will ever omy that eliminates the massive poverty and economic inse­ have any real responsibility for the social consequences of curity of the Third World? Wolfe's "moral sociologist" is a their decisions. For them, economics are the end; people, valuable participant in this project. But, ultimately, politics merely the means. Michael Moore may not have solutions, -- not sociology ·- is what is called for. e but he sure as hell has his priorities in the right order. e N ei~ McLaughlin, a member ofDSA, is a graduate student of Paul Garver, aDSA member, teaches labor history at Rutgers Sociology at the City Uniuersity of New York. Lahor Education Center.

DEMOCRATIC LEFT 23 MARCH· APRIL 1990 Janie Higgins

LET'S PRAY FOR BETTER LABOR RELATIONS. Los FULL EMPLOYMENT, EAST GERMAN-STYLE. East ADgeles Archbishop Roger Mahony still refuses to heed his German's State Security employed 109,000 people as infor­ cemetery workers' bid to representation by the Amalga­ mants, say documents recently come to light. Of these, 1052 mated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU). Last worked tapping telephones, 2100 opened other people's mail, February, that's 1989, the 150 mostly Latino workers voted and 5000 followed people around. for ACTWU. Mahony, who seems to leave his progressive NO, TELL US WHAT YOU REALLY TH1NK. A Colonel credentials aside when dealing with trouble in his own back Aguinaldo, running for office in the Philippines, ruminated yard, argued before the National Labor Relations Board that on a more direct approach to clean government should he the cemetery workers were "religious workers" and not lose the election. "I'll send them (my opponents) floating covered by labor law. When that didn't work, he set up a down the river." Hmm. Ifthat gives you pause, consider this "company" union and hired a union-busting company. Now, from conservative columnist Patrick J. Buchanan, on the after an impartial three-member penel validated the AC'IWU occasion of Nelson Mandela's release and the prospects for win, the Archbishop has terminated negotiations and sched­ black majority rule. "To elevate 'majority rule' to the level of uled a new election without ACTWU's participation. Send divine revelation is a heresy of the American idea.. .If a the Archbishop a message by writing him at 1531 West 9th (black) majority chooses a communist ruler, the minority has Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015. The message? Negotiate! a right to reverse the decision by force." So much for trusting CZECHrr OUT. According to one poll, only three percent of in the people. Czechs favor capitalism. Forty-seven percent want their "END OF THE COLD WAR" BLUES. "If I signal to you economy to remain state-controlled and another 43 percent there's no cold war, then you'll say 'Well, what are you doing opt for a mixed economy. "It's inevitable,'' says cosmetics with troops in Europe?'" insisted George Bush. "For forty heir Ronald Lauder on the prowl for Eastern European years we had a very reliable enemy. Every tim.,e somebody investment opportunities, that "in two, three years there wanted to cut the defense budget, he invaded somewhere," will be a backlash against capitalist exploitation." added John O'Brien, chairman of Grumman Corporation.

The8thAnnual SOCIALIST SCHOLARS CONFERENCE April6,7&8,1990 Democratic Upheavals and the End of the Cold War Boro of Manhattan Community College, CUNY 199 Chambers St. (near Trade Center), New York City

•Jo-Ann Mort • Comcl West • Daniel Singer •Joanne Barkan •}eanCohen •William Tabb • Stanle} Aronowitz • Fr.mces Fox Pivcn •Joseph S. Murphy •Jim Chapin • Irving Howe •Ruth Spitz

SPONSORS/PARTICIPANTS (in formation)

CUNY Pb.D Ptogram In Sociology, Dlssm( TN Nat1on, lnsliN!C for Dcmocnlic Soclallsm. Mld·A!lanlic Radical Historians Otpniz.a!iOn. 1\lr:mfbly R~ Social POllCJI Soctol l'Ui Socia/1st R111/.w. CUNY Democratic Sodalisc GradU2tc Srudcn1 Club, Soulh End Prcw, Th" Fabian Society, T1H Proar-1.-. In n.e. Tl'""" !Ww Lrft Rft/Nw, ~ Pollt/Q, Radical Phl1090phy Assocla!lon. Rcsc:arch Group on Socialism and Democracy, Scimc• and Socl.t)I Campaign for Democracy-Ea! and West. ~ Blldnc:r Caner for Wcsccm Hcmllphctt Studies. Sodaltst Politi~ Dlal«tical A.ntbropolog)j TN G""1'dllln, Union for Radical Poli!lcal Economics,]fttllsb C,,,,....tl, New 'lbrt< Marxist School. Against tlH C..,..,,4 ~l Rucarch Group. CL'NY, The PWlncr~ Ncrwort<. Z .\la,azl,.,, RMlcal 7McJwr

1990 Registration Form Malec checks payable to "Socialist Scholars Conference" and mail to: R.L. Norman, Jr. CUNY De.mocradc Sodallsts Oub, Rm. 800 33 West 42nd St., New York, N.Y. 10036. Please Note that the conference schedule will be available at the door.

Ptt-Rq.lstradon - f22.SO - $12.S0(S

Where did )'OU hear about the conference? lf in a publication. which one? ------­ Professional childcare for toilet trained toddlers of 3 years and older on Saturday & Sunday daytime. Unfortunately, school insurance llmlbtlons do not permit younger children in child care facilities. 0 I need childcare for - children. Ages---. ---. -- Na.me

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DEMOCRATIC LEFT 24 MARCH· Al'Rlt 1990